Linstok Press was founded by William Stokoe who, at the time, was an English Professor at Gallaudet College in Washington, DC.

The company was founded to publish Sign Language Studies, a quarterly journal devoted to publishing scholarly research on Sign Languages and other nonvocal means of communication.

Publication of that journal, which has been published continuously since 1972, led to increased interest in and demand for scholarly and academic text materials. Responding to this demand, Linstok Press has become the nation's leading publisher of material. To date Linstok Press, in keeping with its primary goal of reflecting the state of the art in research and theoretical work, has published numerous texts and monographs.